Thank You.

I have two or three opinions about what one ought or ought not to do with a blog, you might have noticed. And the reason I’ve got to be so opinionated about this kind of stuff is that really, without this blog, well, I’d have a different life. This year, blogging sent me to crunch through the ice with penguins in Antarctica and to breathe the dust kicked up by zebras in the Serengeti and to a bunch of other places, too.  That’s freaking amazing, and sometimes, when I’m at home, I get dizzy with all of it.

That makes it sound like I’m going on about me, and how awesome my blog is, and that’s not my intent at all. See, I’m continually aware that without you, reader, none of this would ever happen. That’s how I got to be so opinionated about blogging. I happen to believe that it’s about what you give your reader. Truly, I get amazing stuff through this process, and lord, I LOVE to write, I just love it. It would be totally disingenuous of me to deny the benefits I get, plus, I’d be lying. But I do spend a good deal of time thinking about you. Without you, I’d stay home a lot more.

During the course of my travels, people ask me what I do, what I’m doing there. The conversation goes much the same way every time. I tell them I’m a travel writer. They swoon a bit and say it must be nice, picturing what we all picture when we think of that classic image of the travel writer. (Just recently, someone asked me if I fly first class all the time and I burst out laughing.) They ask me who I write for, I tell them I’m freelance and I rattle off the places I’ve contributed to regularly. Some of them have heard of Gadling, almost all of them have heard of CN Traveler, not enough of them have heard of World Hum. I tell them I work in tech, too, that’s how I make my living, that yes, right now, my job is awesome and later, I’ll work really hard on things that are way less glam because I don’t earn enough as a travel writer to get by, not by a long shot.

If they’re wired, they ask about blogging. I say this: “I have an inexplicably popular blog about travel.” I find myself thinking of you when people ask about my blog. I’d like to be able to turn around and point at you and say, “Oh, I’m here because of these people. They’re awesome, you should talk to them instead of me.” I wouldn’t be there if you weren’t here.

It’s Thanksgiving here in the US. Rather than the annual list of things I’m grateful for, I’d just like to say thank you to you, reader. Thank you for the kindest and most thoughtful comments and emails, for being the smartest people on the web, for sticking around and watching my writing change over the absurdly long life of this blog. I am continually overwhelmed by your loyalty and support. Thanks for what you make it possible for me to do; it wouldn’t happen without you. You’re the best.

Thank you for reading Nerd’s Eye View.